After a brief recess, Judge Fallon returned to his bench. "Be seated." he stated wearily. Looking out over the assembled people, he blew out a breath. "This case has been full of esoteric questions. Has Christina been abused by being made to live as a boy, even though she didn't seem to mind much? Did the plaintiffs ever have custody of their child, even with no birth record? Thusly, can parental rights be reinstated, even though they were never legally severed to begin with?"
As Christina walked into the courtroom, she was nervous. Living with her grandparents these last five days had been both wonderful and heartbreaking. That first day they'd been loving toward her, but after her grandmother knew the truth of who she was and told Walter, she'd lost all hope of acceptance.
Climbing out of the car, Lyle knew he was on shaky ground. Officially, as an FBI agent, he had no reason or jurisdiction to be at the inspection of the home Ruth's parents had rented in order to take custody of Christina. Still, he hadn't been able to shake the feeling in his gut that if he didn't look into it, something terrible might happen. After twenty years of first being a cop and then an FBI agent, he'd learned to trust that instinct as it'd saved his life countless times. His hunch had paid off when he'd looked into Nancy's file.
CAUTION - Emotional Abuse and Discussed Physical Abuse
---
Looking in the mirror, Christina sighed and tried to bring her smile back. It had been two weeks since she'd last seen David or Ruth and her optimistic attitude had begun to wane under the stress of missing them.
Waiting for word from her parents, Christina sat with Kathy in her room at the Grants'. When Linda suggested she write the letter, she insisted that she not lie, even insisting on taping the Q-tip she swabbed inside her cheek to the paper herself. Leaving to return to the Grant home, she and Kathy spent the time watching videos online. Hearing the phone ring though, she jumped up and practically ran out into the living room.
Walter Cocoran had a secret. Inside, she was Christina Joy Cocoran instead of the eleven-year-old boy everyone thought she was. In her quiet desperation, Christina tried to be the best girl possible. She did everything her parents told her to do, even the stupid boy things, and did them happily. Every night, she would pray that she would wake up a normal girl. The purity of her faith was noticed and she was given a choice; one that sent her life, and countless others, in a much different direction than she could ever have possibly imagined.
Set in Phoenix, Arizona in 2017, The Wisher's Paradox is a fantastic novella that acts as a catalyst for exploration of magical transgender transformations and the idea that the things that make us who we are and how others perceive us cannot be easily undone without unraveling the fabric of our own lives.
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